Ellington + Ethiopia = The Either/Orchestra’s African sojourn BY JON GARELICK

Who knew back when the Either/Orchestra recorded what became known as "The Ethiopian Suite" for their 2004 album More Beautiful Than Death (Accurate) that the heterogeneous pop of that country would become all the rage? Or if not a rage, at least an enthusiasm. Ethiopian musician Mulatu Astatké, who makes a return engagement to play with the E/O this Friday at the Lizard Lounge, is featured throughout the soundtrack to Jim Jarmusch’s new Broken Flowers; he also made a musical cameo in one of Tony Soprano’s dream sequences. The E/O, meanwhile, have come full circle. Their suite was drawn from the Ethiopian Groove: The Golden ’70s, a copy of which was given to Gershon by his friend Morphine leader Mark Sandman in 1994. It was part of the multi-volume Éthiopiques series. Now we have the double-CD Either/Orchestra: Live in Addis (Buda Musique), itself the 20th volume in the Éthiopiques series. It’s the first E/O recording not on Gershon’s own Accurate label, and the first of the series to feature a non-Ethiopian band. When the E/O hit the Ethiopian Music Festival in 2004, they were the first American band to play in the country since Duke Ellington in 1973.

To what did they owe the honor? It began when a couple of expatriated Ethiopian composers — one of whom, Girma Beyene, was featured in the suite — heard their music on the radio in the States. One thing led to another and the E/O were on their way. So what was it like for an American band to play Ethiopian music in Ethiopia for Ethiopians? In the album’s liner notes, Gershon talks about the warm reception the band received — even with their Sun-Ra like treatment of vocal pop tunes that are in turn Ethiopian takes on modern American and Latin styles. You can hear the crowd respond to the Ethiopian guests who played with the band — when they recognize "Bati," sung by vocalist Tsèdènia Gèbrè-Marqos after bassist Rick McLaughlin’s solo introduction, or when tenor-saxophonist Gétatchèw Mèkurya leads a hand-clapping version of "Shellèla" with his Ayler-like vibrato.

The music is a natural fit for the E/O, who have long specialized in unlikely fusions of various musics, whether it’s arranging King Crimson’s "Red" for 10-piece band or combining Thelonious Monk’s "Nutty" with Bobbie Gentry’s "Ode to Billie Joe." Not only are the exotic scales, long, sinuous melodic lines, and odd compound meters in keeping with the E/O’s jazz modernism, but as Gershon points out to me when I get in touch with him at his office in Somerville, Astatké was himself a modernist when he came to Boston in 1959 to study at Berklee and sucked up all the jazz he could, from Miles, Coltrane, and Bill Evans to his classmate Gary Burton and the various permutations of the modern scene.

"It’s not like we’ve taken this music from ethnographic recordings," Gershon explains. "Soul Tezeta," another vocal feature, has a strong R&B flavor, and "Antchim Endèléla" is essentially a tango, even if, as Gershon says, "with a very strong accent."

But the E/O bring their own accent, whether it’s in the extended treatment of the tunes or Gershon’s more extreme tenor moments or trombonist Joel Yennior’s multi-phonic effects. It’s for that reason that Éthiopiques producer Francis Falceto recommended the band stick with familiar Ethiopian material. Gershon says, "By the standards of what the audience were used to, we were already pushing them into deep outer space."

Either/Orchestra | Lizard Lounge, 1667 Mass Ave, Cambridge | Oct 21 | 617.547.0759 | The band also play a 20th anniversary concert with Ethiopian guest in the Bank of America Celebrity Series | Berklee Performance Center, 136 Mass Ave, Boston | Jan 28 | 617.482.6661.